As I write this, my mind goes to those who touched my life—those who helped me walk right before God; and what I find amazing, is that many of them weren’t intentionally trying to influence me, they were simply living for God and making a difference that they were often unaware of! And that ought to be the goal of our life, to touch others as God uses our faithfulness to Him, and our desire to please HIM—Father, Son and Holy Spirit! And I can only do that as I seek to allow God to “Order my steps”! But did you catch the rest of that phrase? God will order our steps in HIS “word”! I must immerse myself in The Word of God, to know it intimately, that I can discern between true and false, right and wrong, good and bad. In fact, this was one of the things that Solomon asked God for, and it has been my verse for this year.

“Give therefore thy servant

an understanding heart

to judge thy people,

that I may discern

between good

and bad:

for who is able

to judge

this thy so great a people?” 1 Kings 3:9

I would simply like to share my personal paraphrase of this passage.

I am the servant—God is my LORD and master—

(See Exodus 20:3)

I need to seek God’s understanding not my own—

(See Proverbs 3:5-6)

I am to judge/discern people’s behavior—

(but I am not The Judge who will pass sentence—

(See Matthew 7:15-20 & Revelation 20:11-14)

I am to seek God’s standard of ‘good and bad’ not man’s—

(See Micah 6:8)

I am to recognize that only God/Jesus can help me lead—

(See John 15:1-5)

Just as Jesus told us in John 15, I must depend on Him, abide in Him, and rely upon His presence and power working in me through His precious Holy Spirit. May we walk His way that others may be drawn to HIS love, salvation and provision by our life of devotion to JESUS, for “without me ye can do nothing”!

“That we should be to the praise of his glory…”. Ephesians 1:12a

Remember we are influencing others, but are we leading them to Jesus or to Hell? There is generally no in between. Jesus made this clear. May you ponder His words as we wrap up our time together, and may we truly pray “open our eyes Lord….”, that we might see YOU and follow YOUR way, influencing others for good!